Friday, December 14, 2012

Cricketer arrested for dowry torture

TNN | Dec 14, 2012, 12.42 AM IST

BHUBANESWAR: Former Ranji cricketer Sanjay Satpathy (33) was finally caught. He was arrested by Mahila police late on Wednesday after being on the run for over a month. His wife Swapna, a civil engineer, had lodged a dowry torture case against him with Mahila police station on November 4. She had also accused him of forcibly taking away her 10-year-old son Anshu from her.

Police laid their hands on Sanjay at his in-law's house in Puri's Nirmala village where he was pressurizing his wife and father-in-law to withdraw the case against him. "We arrested him from his wife's paternal house," ACP (Zone-I) Nihar Ranjan Das said. Sanjay was produced in a trial court here on Thursday and his bail plea was rejected.

Swapna alleged that Sanjay and two of his friends reached her house late in the night and started beating up her father Sarbeswar Upadhyay. "He was drunk. He abused us and beat my father," Swapna said. "He threatened me of dire consequences if I do not withdraw the case against him. We informed police immediately," she said. Sources said Swapna's neighbours detained Sanjay, who was attempting to flee. "We handed him over to police. But his friends escaped," Swapna said.

Sanjay refused to speak to media. However, he had earlier rubbished her allegations.

The whereabouts of Anshu was not known till evening. "Police failed to retrieve my child from him," Swapna said. Police said Sanjay refused to divulge anything about the child. "Since Swapna had moved the family court to get back her child, Sanjay will inform the court about his whereabouts," said IIC of Mahila police station Amita Tripathy. Sanjay's lawyer Durga Prasad Rath said he would move the higher court seeking bail. "The allegations against him are baseless," Rath said.

Swapna and Sanjay had tied the knot in February 2011. Sanjay, who debuted in Ranji Trophyagainst Maharashtra in 1995-96, had bagged 208 scalps in 63 first class matches before calling it a day from cricket nearly three years ago. Sanjay was awarded cricketer of the year in 1999 by the state government but was banned for a year by Odisha Cricket Association in August 2009 for allegedly making defamatory remarks against the association.

In February, former captain of Odisha Ranji team Prabhanjan Mallick was arrested on charges of torturing his wife Cini Mohanty after she lodged a complaint at the Mahila police station.